Turf to Tango
by Evie of the Nile
Summary: The O'Connells once again get caught up in Egypt's past, but this time, helping others and themselves is hard to do, when they don't know who they are.
1. Default Chapter

Turf to Tango

Summary: The O'Connells--yet again--- get involved in the past of Egypt. Now they have to help save Egypt, but it's hard to save someone if you don't know who they are. 

Disclaimer: the Mummy events, character, and everything else belonging to the Mummy does not belong to me, some characters and the plot line do not belong to the Mummy, and are mine, please do not take it or their identities without my permission.

"Look here" Evelyn said as her son strode over to see what his mother had found. 

"It appears to be in good condition," He said, "But it's just a shard of pottery." He gave his mother a quizzical look.

"Oh dear Alex, in the seventeen years you have been coming up here, did you learn anything?" She laughed as he helped her up from the squatting position. "Look" She pointed down to the clay painted piece that lay half submerged in the sand. 

"Wow, pretty patterns." Alex said half jokingly. 

"But don't you realize what it stands for?" His mother asked.

"Hmm," Alex pondered as the two turned away from the cleared crevice in the side of the cave where they were excavating. 

"We're going to need more workers, I want people who are trustworthy." Evelyn informed. They were in the Valley of the Kings, outside of Luxor, located far back, beside the tomb of Siptah, number 47 as known in more recent years. 

"You found a shard of pottery, why do you all of a sudden want to start a whole excavation? People find pottery all the time! Even the tourists leave this place with a souvenir of clay." Her son opposed. "What does this pottery have to do with anything anyone else has found in here?" He asked as they came to rest at the set up consisting of a tarp draped over some erected poles. 

Evelyn sat down on a box and rummaged through a picnic basket. "Because, I've read somewhere," Here speech became less audible as she bit into a cucumber sandwich, " That, there was evidence of some sort of tribe or maybe mourners that set up camp near here."

"Really?" 

"Yes, it's said that Sir Emery Vanshoud found evidence, as meek as it was. I believe that this shard may be leading us to some sort of a discovery." She concluded.

Just then Evelyn's husband came back, on horseback. Evelyn stood up to greet him, getting up on tip toes and giving him a kiss.

"Well good morning to you all!" Rick greeted. "And how are we doing?" 

"Mom's trying to make something out of nothing." Alex responded with light humour.

"I am not." She snapped back like a child. 

"Oh yeah? What evidence did this Emery person find?" Alex asked.

"Oh dear God," Rick stated to himself, "Alex, we need to find you a woman." 

Evenly gave her husband a sidelong look, then turned back to her son. "He found evidence of fires in the cliff, although not visible now, if you dig just up on the first plateau into the cliff side, you will find evidence, he even found grasses, thousands of years old, still entombed in their graves of ash." She squinted her eyes and talked with enigmatic tones. 

"Oh, I remember this!" Rick spoke up after he dismounted and headed back to the 'shelter' for food. "You wouldn't stop talking about that Emery man for weeks, he's the one you're talking about, right? With the lost funds after his expedition couldn't find any more proof to back up the reasoning for their dig. You talked like he was your idol." He laughed as he grabbed a slab of chicken and bit into it.

"Well I believe that there really is something up there, and that he was miss-treated in his expeditions." She defended.

"Yup, that'd be him." Rick laughed.

"Anyway, I think that the fires, and the pottery--possibly used for food-- is proof enough." She mumbled to herself.

"Oh yeah?" Alex asked, "Prove it."

"Alright, I will." She said, as she got up with a big smirk on her face.


	2. We need workmen

(AN there is some Arabic used in this chapter and probably in the chapters to come. If you need help deciphering what the words mean, go to my Information fic to find out)

"I can't believe you're doing this." Rick said, as he trekked across the dunes with his wife early in the morning, five AM to be precise. "I can't believe I'm doing this!" He said to himself. "Where's Alex, isn't he the one who pressured you into doing this, I swear Evie, you have to learn to let go. You're giving into your son, and that isn't right, it should be the other way around, like, why don't you dare him to move out or something. He's 20 for God's sake! It just isn't right. He has friends that are already moved out, by the ages of fourteen! And happily married, they have kids by sixteen, and I bet their parents don't feel so old anymore, you know, at the fact of being grandparents." 

Evie turned around and caught Rick off guard, giving him a nice big kiss on the lips. After a few seconds she finally pulled away, keeping the same smirk on her face. "His friends are all Egyptians, darling." She turned back around and continued her journey to the village. 

"Oh." He remarked to himself, then ran to catch up to his wife. 

~~~~~~

They reached the village by about six, which is when everyone was up to greet the sun and start about their daily tasks. Rick and Evelyn's presence did not go unnoticed. Some of the children ran up to them demanding backsheesh, and others idly crowded around. 

They went straight to the Mayor's house, knowing that he'd be the one to help them, although some of Egypt was growing, and with the growth, came more up to date cities and towns, most of the villages scattered out were still as they were years before. Living as they did before, which meant waking and sleeping with the sun, working as they did, farming, and looking for extra money where ever they could find it.

The mayor had a slightly larger house then the rest of the townspeople, maybe an extra room for visitors. 

He must have heard the bustle, because as soon as they reached the front of his house, the door was flung open "Marhaba! How kind of you to bless my house like this. What can I do for you Sitt, Effendi O'Connell" He asked as he ushered the two into his home and closed the door, after waving away the crowed that grew around his front door.

All the walls were stained white, and there was barely anything for furniture, a bench moulded right into the wall, and a wooden table in front of it. 

"Sit, please, make yourselves comfortable!" the man insisted, he didn't look that fit to be the mayor,

He was a short and stocky man, he wore a navy blue turban, as did all of the people of the village. 

"Would you like a drink?" He asked as he started to the back of his house, which contained his kitchen. 

"Oh no, that's quite alright." Evelyn politely refused, slightly cringing at the thought. "Effendi Babafemi, we are starting an excavation down in the valley, and we need people to help dig." At this question the mayor lit right up, this was what he was waiting for, more money to the village. He always had the workers give him some of the earnings to go toward the 'town'.

"Oh, very good! How many men do you need?" He asked with sheer joy written on his face.

~~~~~~

They finally got out of there with about 25 workers, all willing and able, after much bargaining because the mayor had promised that there were 'many strong men in the village'. The also came out with a young boy, probably about 14 years old, he's the mayors son and was sent with them as a 'personal guide' boasting of very high directional value. He was thrown in for free 'only the experience is needed for Selim.' The mayor had said. They figured that there wasn't any harm in this boy coming too. Evenly knew the wadi's back to front, up and down and didn't need anyone's help.

They finally got back to the Valley after walking for a half an hour.

"We need to get in the habit of using the horses more often." Rick moaned as they got up to the tomb of Siptah. 

"Oh poor baby." Evelyn giggled as she rubbed his back, "We need to get you a litter don't we? That's what we hired these men for, to pull you around on your litter." She started to laugh. 

"Ha ha ha" Rick mused sarcastically. "Where's Alex? Wasn't he supposed to meet up here at noon, it's almost there." 

"Oh, darling, he's allowed to stay out past noon. He's nineteen, let him have his fun." Evelyn said with a smile. 

"Yes well I think we need to give him some boundaries, that boy's been staying out late almost every night we've been up here, he needs rules and responsibilities. We don't' want him to turn into Jonathan!" Rick said with a stern look on his face.

Evie elbowed him in the side of the ribs.

Just then they heard the familiar sound of hooves hitting the earth, as their son came over on his new horse, Rashid, he came galloping over, and pulled up to a rearing stop in front of his parents, then elegantly jumped off.

"Father, Mother." He greeted them.

"Where were you?" Rick asked.

"Hello Alex, come with me, will you?" Evelyn cut in, she grasped her son's arm and pulled him toward the cliff leaving Rick to tend to the horse.

"What is it?" Alex asked.

"Nothing, just letting your father cool down, he gets so worked up about you leaving for more then a couple hours." She laughed.

"Oh," Alex chuckled. He sounded just like his father, Evenly noted, they continued up a little ledge toward the side of the wadi that bordered the desert floor from the Valley of the Kings.

"So," he continued. "This is where you're planning to dig? Well, let the luck be with you because I don't think you're going to find a da-- erm--- blasted thing on this cliff. There's no sign of anyone ever being here except for a few scraps of pottery." Alex argued his point. 

"Well there's only one way to find out." his persistent mother stubbornly concluded.

There was already a few men at the site standing off to the side timidly chatting amongst themselves and avoiding eye contact with the O'Connells. 

One man, however came forth and confronted Rick as he tied off Rashid to a poll of the 'tent'.

"Backsheesh?" The man asked. 

"Um, Evie?" Rick called out, he knew a little bit of Arabic, and certainly knew what that meant, but didn't know how to give the man an answer.

"What is it?" Evelyn asked as she came down the hill toward her husband. 

"They haven't even started working and I think he's asking for a raise." Rick mumbled to her as he smiled to the man.

"Effendi, you will be paid at the end of each week." Evelyn explained. 

Then man asked her another question.

"What'd he ask?" Rick asked her.

"He wants to know if they will get Sundays off." She thought for a minute. "Yes." She answered in Arabic. To this the man straightened up and marched off to go tell the others what he had accomplished. 

"Ah good, I thought you would have us working through the week without any breaks." Rick sighed. 

"Well, Alex should always get some time to himself." Evelyn defended.

"Oh, right." Rick responded.


	3. Princess Nefertiri

Later into the afternoon as everyone got tired Evelyn let the workers have a break from digging to go sit in the shade. She was persistent, however, and stood her ground beside the cliff's face. 

"Mum, shy don't you come have a sandwich?" Alex asked as he made his way to her. 

"No, I'm fine, really. Go eat, I'll be there in a little bit." She shooed him off as she scratched at the surface with a shovel. 

Alex gave up, turned around and left.

As Evie crouched and dug her husband slowly made his way to her. "Whatcha doing?" He asked with a smirk on his face. 

"Go away." She tried with a smirk.

"You can't tell me what to do." He declared as he approached her.

"I can't dig when you're over here." She said giggling.

"Why not? Is it my rugged looks and my charm?" He asked. 

"No, it's your, your…" She started but couldn't find the words. "Your appalling behaviour and your miss use of tools!" She shot out after a moment of thought. 

"Oh, you'll have to do better then that." He informed her as he approached, arms open.

Just them they heard some commotion. He looked back to the men and saw them looking up, he turned around the and looked up the face of the cliff. 

She turned and looked too, it was a loose bolder that was teetering over their heads, and just lost its grip. 

"Evelyn!" Rick yelled, he pulled her up to her feet and pushed her against the cliff, he stood over her to protect her. 

She heard and felt the rock smash the side of the cliff, and then nothing… "Rick?" She asked, "Are you alright?" 

She opened her eyes and saw him looking down at her with a confused look on his face.

"Um, I'm fine." He just answered. She saw the trickle of crimson run down from his head. 

"Oh dear, you were hit with rock. Come on, there's first aid equipment at the camp" 

Evelyn and Rick were met with Alex and a couple individuals from the crew and Rick was guided to the tent. Evie looked on but couldn't quite get through the mob of helpers. 

"Mum, why don't you go get the equipment and we'll bring dad back to the house?" Alex suggested. 

"Alright" Evelyn responded in a daze, looking on to her husband.

"I'll leave Rashid for you."

"U-huh" She answered still looking over in his direction.

"Hey," her son approached her "I thought that keeping you away would help your nerves. Would you rather go with him?" Alex asked, catching his mother's attention.

"Oh, no, that's OK." She smiled gratefully. "I guess a little ride wouldn't hurt, but I'll get back as soon as possible, I just have to pack up my brushes."

With that Alex gave his mother a hug, then turned and walked away, Evelyn did the same, only in the other direction. 

She rummaged through her tools as she worried about her husband. As she started to pack everything up, something caught her eyes, and for a moment it held her there. What was it? It was a flat surface in the rock cut, kind of inside a crevice about 5 feet tall and 3 feet wide. 

Despite the circumstances, she grabbed a brush and walked up to it anyway. She began to brush it off, she read it line by line as the dirt and sand fell off.

'…and as the Waters ran through time, all of the Valley was flooded, all of the people killed, and as it was this year to be, it will be again. Every thousandth year the waters shall flood-'

She had leaned up against the rock and would have read more but her rock turned to nothing, and the nothing to air, she found herself falling…

Evenly screamed as the black cloak enclosed her and she fell into the abyss, then suddenly, she hit the bottom. When she got up she felt herself around the sandy dirt floor until she found a wall. She reached into her pockets with shaky arms and grabbed a match, without anything else to burn, she took off her hat, places it on the ground, and set it on fire.

The first task was to find some kindling, the hat would not burn forever, and escape was futile. 

As she rummaged through the cave-like labyrinth she was startled by a sound, footfall on the floor, not her own. She slowly turned toward the noise, and let out an ear piercing scream.

~~~~~~

They got Rick back to the house the O'Connells owned just outside the valley. Alex had instructed the workers to lay Rick down in his bed, which they did, and let them off for the day, with pay. 

"Dad?" he asked as he walked into his mum and dad's room. 

"Yeah," Came a groggy voice from the bed, "What?" 

"Are you alright?" Alex asked. 

"Of course, now go away." He snapped.

Alex was confused, but in the end came to the conclusion that his father must have one hell of a head ache. "I'm going to find mum, she's on her way back from the dig, and I figure she may need some help." Alex informed his father as he left the room.

~~~~~~ 

Alex rode off on Niles, his mother's horse, he got all the way to siptah's tomb, and was very surprised because he thought she'd at least be on her way by now. He decided to turn around ahead back, in case he missed her. 

~~~~~~

The young British woman made her way down the streets of Luxor, "I need a boat, we need to get across, into the Valley" she mumbled to her assistant who walked behind her. "Did you get that?" She turned around and asked the lady behind her. 

"Yes yes, there's bound to be someone who will take you across the river, for a price." Patsy said. 

"Alright" Ella agreed, "We need to get across there, I have patients who need tending to."

They came across the only house, or manor, by the looks of it, within a mile. "This must be it, there's no address." Ella walked up to the front door, just as someone came riding up. 

"Oh, there you are!" Alex exclaimed as he saw his mother walk up to the front door. "Oh, you got a doctor? Nice to meet you." he said to Patsy as he opened the front door and let them in. 

"How is he?" Ella asked, referring to he patient. 

"Good, don't worry, I think he'll be OK, a little grumpy though," Alex laughed, " you can go up and see him, he might be sleeping again?" 

"Um, where is he?" she asked.

"In bed." Alex answered, "Well, I have to go meet some people, if you don't mind. I'll go get the rest of your stuff as well, you left it at the site." Alex gave Ella a peck on the cheek and left. 

"What was that for?" Patsy asked half amused. 

"Um, I was short notice, I guess he's grateful." she answered, they found the staircase and headed up, Ella remembered seeing 'O'Connell residence' writing on the outside of the house. They finally found the room that Rick occupied and stepped in.

"Mr. O'Connell?" Ella asked as she approached the bed.

"What?" He asked, none too pleased, and very disoriented.

"Hello, my name's Ella, you can just call me Elle." She introduced, "And this is my assistant Patsy, we're going to take care of you. I heard you had quite a- um, actually to be honest, I don't know what happened to you. All I heard was that you got hit on the head." She admitted. "Can you tell me what happened to you Mr. O'Connell?" She asked.

"What? Oh, I don' t know, who are you?" He asked turning over and looking her straight in the eyes. "You look familiar." He said as he squinted. 

"You don't know what happened to you?" She asked.

"No, why do you keep on asking?" He got a little annoyed and sat up. 

"I think you should maybe lie down." Ella tried as she stepped in front of Rick.

"Move" He said.

"Mr. O'Connell, who don't you just lay back down." She tried coming to it gently.

"Why do you keep on calling me that?" He asked. "My name's Rick. Use it" He got up and pushed right past her and headed for the door. 

"Patsy, close the door!" Ella called out, but it was too late, he was already out.

~~~~~~

"Quite!" the voice said in a deep tone, one not to argue or disobey the unknown, she closed her mouth. "Come with me." He said, as he turned down a side tunnel, Evelyn had to run to keep up with him.

"Where are we going?" she inquired innocently, the 'beast' turned around and gazed down at her, she still couldn't see who or what he was, he stood on hind legs, and had the build of a very tall very fit man, but she still couldn't see his face, it was shadowed from her perspective.

"You know, curiosity killed the cat" he simply stated, turned around and walked on..

"Alright," She said to herself.

"Nefertiri I suggest you stay quiet, you are trying your patience." He told her over his shoulder. 

"You know you who I am…was! You know who I was?" She asked in disbelief. 

"Of course, it's because of your father 's demise that my master was able to…never mind, you know too much already, and the more you know, the worse the punishment will be."


	4. Pharaoh Sethos

"I-I don't get what you're saying." Evelyn pressed on as she followed the creature into the labyrinth of corridors. 

"Listen," He raised his voice, and turned around. His faced was practically pressed up against hers as he spoke. "You have not changed since your reign in the ancient world, have you. You're as stubborn as your father, and that's what got you both killed. I suggest you just speak when you're spoken to and step lively, we don't want to be late." With that he spun back around and continued on his journey. 

Evelyn had gotten a good look at his face, he was a man, whether he was mortal or not she did now know. His face had been ravaged by time but he was still very tall and muscular. 

The two came upon double doors, the man pushed them both open with his arms and bid Evelyn to go inside, where at that point he knelt down and crossed his arms over his chest. Evleyn looked back at him, and then forward, where a shimmer of gold caught her eyes through the darkness ahead, the gold tilted upward, and below it two glowing eyes penetrated the blackness. "Princess Nefertiri." A man spoke slowly and deeply as he stepped into a pool of light. "I should have known it was you."

~~~~~~

Alex came home late that night, he had been out all day looking around the dig site, a couple workers had come and Alex had helped them get the job started, although he didn't know exactly where his mother wanted him to dig, he would ask her that in the morning at home. 

It was already dark and he made his way through the house quietly, assuming everyone was asleep already. When he opened the door to his room he found that the bed was already occupied, and the person stirred and awoke. "I'm sorry," Alex said as he backed out and went to shut the door. 

"I'm sorry, is this your room." It was the nurse who spoke. "Well I can always leave." She got up and Alex saw that she wore quite a revealing dress, which accentuated her slender body. There was a slit that ran up her night gown along the side and the top was low cut. 

"Oh, no, you can stay here, I'll just go sleep in a guest room or something." He turned around, but was caught around the neck by Patsy's arm as she pulled him back into the room and kicked the door closed. 

"I wouldn't want you to sleep somewhere else. I know that I can get frightened when I'm sleeping in a different room, or house. She pushed him down on the bed. 

"Well, I really think I should be getting back to…ummm-" He was cut off by her mouth on his. He gave in for a couple seconds, but then quickly pulled away. "I don't think I should be doing this." He said as he gently pushed Patsy away. He quickly left the room and took reside in the guest room down the hallway.

~~~~~~ 

Not knowing what to do for the night, Ella decided that her and Patsy should at least stay, Mr. O'Connell, or Rick, as he had them call him. Wasn't doing that good, he was confused and very ill-tempered. 

After Patsy and Ella had their tea after dinner, Ella felt very tired, it was probably the hard days work, and decided to call it a night. She now slept in one of the guest rooms, the one closest (beside) Mr. O'Connell's bedroom.

~~~~~~

As Alex lay in bed glaring up at the ceiling he heard his bedroom door squeak. He looked over and saw a slender figure leaned up against the door frame. "I am so very sorry." The woman said. "I was rude and too outspoken. If you would like your bedroom back I will go spend the rest of the night in a hotel across the river." It was Patsy again. 

"Oh no." Alex insisted. "Why don't you just stay here tonight, I'm sure my mother will need you to help take care of father." He saw Patsy shiver and offered her a blanket. She came over and sat on the bed and he put the blanket around her shoulders.


End file.
